Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Johnson on Chae Chan Ping

In 2014, the University of Oklahoma College of Law held a symposium to mark the 125th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Chae Chan Ping v. United States, 130 U.S. 581 (1889), also known as the Chinese Exclusion Case. Chae Chan Ping was a Chinese migrant who had lived in the United States for 12 years before he left the country, which he did only after obtaining legal permission to return. While Chae Chan Ping was at sea on his way back to the United States, Congress passed a law revoking reentry certificates for Chinese migrants, and Chae Chan Ping was denied reentry. A unanimous Supreme Court determined that Congress’ decision to revoke the reentry certificates was “conclusive upon the judiciary.” That holding has become known as the “plenary power doctrine,” and it has been foundational to constitutional immigration jurisprudence. Under this doctrine, any laws passed by Congress with respect to immigration, even those that would be unconstitutional if applied to citizens, are not subject to judicial challenge. In this introduction, I explain the relevance of this seminal decision and introduce the symposium contributions.